What if your automobile mechanic operated like medical care? Hmm…I am imagining several possible situations….
Mechanic: Sir, your battery is weak. So we duct taped a second battery to the outside of your front fender and ran wires to your engine.
Customer: What? Can’t you fix the battery?
Mechanic: No, this is our best option.
Mechanic: Sir, your radiator is leaking coolant. We have jury rigged a second radiator to capture the leaking coolant. You will have to drive with your hood half way open from now on.
Customer: Wait, can’t you patch the leaking radiator? Seal the leak?
Mechanic: No, not possible.
Mechanic: Sir, your left front tire has a tiny hole that is leaking air. We’ve attached a device to receive the air from the tire and then recycle it back to the same tire in order to maintain proper air pressure.
Customer: Can’t you patch that tiny hole in the tire?
Mechanic: No, not possible, sorry.
But this is what happens in the medical profession more times than I can list. The industry seems intent on treatment, not cures. Remember the March of Dimes? A non-profit organization dedicated to stopping polio. They were successful and almost vanished. They eventually found a different cause, preventing birth defects. But all the other gigantic non-profit health care organizations learned their lesson. Treatment. No cures.
Doctor: Your pancreas is not producing sufficient insulin, so you have diabetes. You need to inject sharp pointed needles with artificial insulin into your body several times a day to prevent eventual death.
Patient: What? Can’t you figure out why the pancreas isn’t producing enough insulin and fix it?
Doctor: Why the hell would we do that? Do you know how gigantic the diabetes treatment market is? We wouldn’t make any money if we did something stupid like that
Doctor: You have high blood pressure. You need to take these three prescriptions the rest of your life. Be careful of the side effects, especially if you notice a third arm growing out of your side.
Patient: Doc, can you discover what is causing the high blood pressure and cure that?
Doctor: We don’t like using the word “cure”. We prefer the word “Treatment”.
Thankfully, my automobile mechanic successfully cures my automobile problems. I wish our medical system did!
Dart